Episode 4 The Harbour

Aberdeen Harbour. On the North East coast of Scotland.

SHIP'S HORN BLARES

One of Britain's oldest businesses.

It's just like a conveyor belt, it just never just stops.

And one of Europe's most modern ports.

You've got clearance to sail now.

This is a glimpse into a hidden world.

On our way. He's under the bell now.

Of men and women who keep the harbour running.

It's what you would call a typical woman.

I'm a poor, defenceless female so watch it.

24 hours a day...

Things change like...

It's getting on for a force 10 now.

Hang fire on that bell.

This is just madness.

..365 days a year.

Goodbye, cruel world!

God.

-Jimmy!

-How are you, my friend?

It has been my pleasure.

The Harbour.

SHIP'S HORN BLARES

Doug Rennie is the sales director at Andrew Christie Junior -

one of the few fish processing factories left in the harbour.

It's 5.35, and we're off to Peterhead.

He'd rather not be up this early in the morning but he has no choice.

Because the market right in front of you no longer exists.

No boats land here.

Lights, but no fish there.

And this is why we've been driving to Peterhead every day.

Aberdeen fish market closed in 2009.

Now Doug has to make the 90-minute round trip five days a week.

You've never been to a shout auction before?

No, well, this is typical of a shout auction.

169, 169...

Last year, over a million boxes of fish,

valued at £164 million were sold here.

£50!

Mainly haddock, cod, whiting and coley.

570!

Today, however, Doug's not impressed by what's on offer.

Fish are nice but there's nae a lot happening for me.

Not my kind of market.

Ever since quotas were introduced, there's been less fish available.

425, all done!

Fish is very expensive. In fact, the whole year's been dear.

Nae a lot, Dave. What can you say?

At the harbour,

the final pieces of cargo are being loaded onto the Highland Prince.

She's a supply vessel, delivering goods and equipment,

to the rigs in the North Sea.

We're a bit like a general delivery van.

If the rig needs it, we take it out there.

Nick Bennett is the ship's master.

Highland Prince boatman.

Yeah, that's me quayside ready to let you go, captain.

Prince deck, Prince bridge. You can let go aft as soon as you get there.

Aberdeen VTS. Highland Prince.

OK, Highland Prince, traffic clearance to sail.

It can be quite finely timed sometimes getting in and out of here,

you sort of join a convoy, particularly around this time of night,

it always seems to be like rush hour.

He used to drive ferries,

and is skilled at handling large vessels like the Highland Prince.

MUFFLED VOICES ON RADIO

We're just coming straight out parallel with the quay.

Second mate Bob Irvine is his lookout.

-South parallel with the Volstad Viking.

-Thank you.

Clear to come ahead. Five metres clear on the port side.

All clear to starboard, thank you.

Aberdeen VTS. Highland Prince, bottom of the river.

-RADIO:

-'Clearance to sail.'

Once they leave the harbour, they increase their speed.

Clear, thank you.

The Highland Prince is off to deliver supplies to a rig

120 miles north east of Aberdeen.

We've got, er... How much cargo have we got, roughly, Bob?

About 60?

47 units of cargo which we will deliver.

We're like the milkman. We deliver on a daily basis.

At the harbour, it's business as usual.

What a cracking day.

I think the woolly pully's going to have to come off at some point.

Don't go any more. A wee bit ahead.

My usual jolly visit to the vessels.

Howard Drysdale works for the Sailors Society,

a charity that looks after the welfare of seafarers.

I'm the same as a God pastor, but my church is the port.

My role is to go and visit the ships as they come in to the port,

and make sure everything's OK on board.

-Did you miss me last time?

-I did, that's why we came back.

You came back to see me? Oh, I feel honoured.

HE LAUGHS

An ex-seafarer himself,

he's been port chaplain at the harbour for the past 11 years.

You're next. Morning!

Oh, I could have brought the car over,

you could have painted that for me.

Morning, Captain, how you doing? Dan you're the man.

Good to see you again.

Fine, nice to see you again.

I thought you were painting because I had arrived.

No!

I use humour a lot when I'm visiting ships,

mainly to break down pre-conceived idea that I'm the minister

who's going to preach at people. I don't.

I had to share a taxi to the airport.

Did you really?

-The driver was a God botherer as well.

-Oh, no.

The number of guys who do bring up religion in one form or another,

and my approach is not to jump on them when they do that,

and then try and do the conversion bit,

but just simply to nudge it along a wee bit, nudge it along a wee bit.

And over the months and the years who knows where it's going to lead?

Are we ready to rock?

At the fish processors, it's business as usual.

Although not for much longer.

Over the next few months,

all the staff will be moving to a new factory, which has been completely refurbished.

Our efficiency level will be dramatically increased,

which means our costs will go down by becoming more efficient.

And factory manager Alex Ferguson

hopes that business will improve as a result.

The boy'll come for it. Shove it over there.

I've still got 10 years to work, I need to work.

You've got to go and try it, see if it works out.

Hopefully it will work out.

But the skinning machine has broken down...again.

I think it's a lady skinning machine.

It's not a man skinning machine. It's a lady one.

Very temperamental that, very temperamental.

Are you going to fix this? Going to repair this, no?

In the new factory, they have a team of in-house engineers.

Here, it's just Arthur Stewart.

Arthur keeps the machines going.

He does a lot of maintenance in here, self-taught.

Arthur's been with the company for 34 years

and he's dubious about the move.

We've been up and looked round the factory.

But everyone came out of the factory

and I think maybe two members of the staff said, "This will be OK."

-The rest were all going, "This is a

-BLEEP

-factory!"

HE LAUGHS

Doon here you've got freedom to move.

Up there it's all conveyor belt.

Large concentration camp as far as I'm concerned.

So it's nae for me.

He says he's leaving. Seriously.

Are you leaving?

Yeah.

He'll be going out in a box beside the filleting machine.

Oh, beautiful!

Fantastic.

Some guy, you know.

I need him to run the factory with me.

I'll get a job as a newspaper boy.

It's 7.30am on the Highland Prince,

and visibility is down to just 200 metres.

LOW HORN

If you can hear that noise outside. That's the foghorn of the oil rig.

And that Morse signal that you can hear and sound, that's you,

you're running into danger.

Time to make contact with the rig.

Britannia. Highland Prince. Yes, sir, that's us,

just approaching your 500-metre zone.

What's the visibility like with you?

'At the moment, it's not great.

'I could give you a rough estimate but it's still going to be...'

The rig, you cant see it, it's just over there.

So I'm now going to creep in very slowly.

The fog makes everyone more cautious.

And it's up to the crane driver to make a decision

on whether they're able to work.

You wouldn't be landing five tonnes of cargo blind.

If he's not happy we won't be doing it.

We'll be pulling off and waiting for the fog to clear.

Britannia Crane. Highland Prince.

What's it looking like from where you are?

'Well, I can actually see your deck.'

Yep, OK, it sounds like we're good to go, then.

We're about 15 metres off.

Sometimes we have to get a little bit closer, really,

but only in flat, calm conditions.

We always have to take into consideration the swell,

which can pick us up and push us sideways.

If you hit one of those legs, not only would it damage the ship,

but they may have to evacuate the rig.

Potentially very serious with a lot of paperwork involved.

And I don't like paperwork!

Aye, Cygnus, the pilot. Morning to you.

We are on our way out to you now.

Ralph Greig used to work in VTS, or vessel traffic services,

before he realised that he missed being at sea.

Have your ladder ready one and half metres above the water.

Now he's training to become a pilot.

I like driving the boats.

Going to the pilot's job, you're driving the boats every single day,

from a small cargo ship, where you are having to do it all yourself.

Going to the next boat and it's a supply vessel

with thrusters and everything else.

It's great.

His wife, Alison, and children Heather and Jonathan

have come to see how he's getting on.

Am I getting cuddles? Yeah!

CHILDREN SQUEAL EXCITEDLY

The jackets he's found for them are just a little on the big side.

I've lost my arms!

A trio of pilots.

You've not lost your voice.

You've lost your arms.

-Yeah?

-Yeah!

The main reason I actually came shore side was family reasons.

I got married, the kids came along and I was finding that I didn't

want to go away to sea because I was missing too much of the kids.

This is a straight supply vessel. Nothing fancy at all.

And it's great now, being home and I always see them

'at some point during the day.'

-You like my job, don't you?

-Yes.

You like my job. Why do you like my job?

I don't know.

Because it brings lots of money for you to buy sweeties.

With such a young family,

Ralph is always conscious of the potential dangers of his job.

You've got a ship that is moving all over the place,

and then you've got a rope ladder.

I think, on average, it's worldwide,

about two to three pilots a year are killed.

So that is the boat I go on.

That one?

No, the pilot cutter.

You have to climb up that ladder and go through that door.

You see? There you go. HORN BELLOWS

HORN BELLOWS

That was nice of them, wasn't it?

It's a honky honk, yes.

Away they go.

The Suchandra, with its all-Indian crew,

is a ship Howard's visited many times before.

And you, my friend, are finding it cold.

You're wearing your woolly hat inside.

-It's not very cold.

-Aw... HOWARD LAUGHS

Hiya. How are you doing?

-Good, how are you?

-Good to see you again.

-I've got some Indian news for you guys.

-Oh, yeah.

-Thank you.

-My pleasure.

While some sailors can't wait to escape once they berth,

others find it a more daunting prospect.

'A lot of seafarers won't come off the ships.'

They're in a foreign country, they're not sure.

It's a bit insecure. They're not 100% comfortable going up the town,

so they're a bit wary.

We hear a lot of noise and people just screaming and shouting.

I don't know whether they're looking out for a fight or...

Be careful, that's all I would say.

Most big ports have a Seafarers' Centre,

but there's only one in Scotland and that's in Grangemouth.

We've consistently heard seafarers saying to us,

"Is there a centre in Aberdeen?" And we say "I'm sorry, there isn't".

They say "But it's so big, it's so busy - why is there no centre?'

-It's looking a lot nicer.

-Indeed.

Ever since he started as chaplain at the port,

it's been Howard's mission to open such a centre.

Aw! Aw!

But red tape and lack of funding

have made it an almost impossible task...

-Big enough boxes, Brian.

-..until now.

And we've got pool table. We've got an internet room through there.

That's really what the centre's all about -

it's just giving a safe haven for the seafarer

where they can come and relax, meet other seafarers, chat...

But it's due to open in just a few days

and Howard's struggling to get everything ready in time.

I'm not getting any younger, Brian. You ready to join me?

I've had so many people say, "You don't need a mission,

"there's no point in having it, the oil industry's dead and dying.

"Who's going to be here in ten years' time?"

Well, the oil industry is still going,

there's still plenty of seafarers in the port and the need is here.

Cannae beat the banter, can you?

Urgh. You're a strong man.

It's very much on-the-job training for pilot Ralph,

who's just about to take out the Maersk Laser.

-Are you ready?

-Yep.

Laser deck to Laser bridge. RADIO CRACKLES

Yep, we're going to have the pilot arriving on the port side.

With him today is Keith Fuller, who's there to supervise.

Ralph is only licensed to pilot ships up to 90 metres

and this one is just over that by a few centimetres.

OK, we're ready to let go.

-Ready to let go!

-OK, captain, so what we'll do is...

..we'll just angle ourselves off here,

keep the speed down to three, three and a half knots until there,

then start picking up speed.

But the Maersk Laser can be awkward to manoeuvre.

You're all gone aft.

At the moment, we're in quite a tight space.

As soon as we move off, we've got to try and get, sort of...

Almost angle her out without going ahead too much.

So that we don't hit anything.

This is one of the trickier bits.

Even though he's not driving the vessel,

it's Ralph's job to give the crew guidance.

That's you all clear, you can start making a move.

VTS, the Maersk Laser, we are on the move.

One metre starboard.

To make things even trickier for Ralph,

the view from the bridge is not great.

Ten metres off the lifeboat now.

'You can't see very much.

'You'll have seen me running from side to side...

'The visibility is not fantastic from any one point in the ship.'

For Ralph, it's another success.

Yeah, we're our way down now.

Yeah, it was good, it was all right. We didn't hit anything, so...

And as for the most dangerous part of any pilot's job...

'It's just timing it right.

It's nothing that can, sort of, be...taught.

It's more just a learning process,

you've just got to learn as you go. You know when you do it.

So, yeah.

It's the 19th of December.

The grand opening of Howard's Seafarers' Centre.

I cannae wait! I wanted to open the door now and it's...

Well, we've only another half hour to go!

And...I'll probably open the door

and there'll no' be a soul out there, of course!

But they're practically queuing up.

How are you doing? How are you, my friend.

I said I would give the first seafarer in here a big hug.

That's you, you're the first seafarer!

Good to see you, my friend!

Nice to meet you!

-My family.

-This is your family?

-Yeah. So, finally...

It's open, we've arrived. You've been warned!

Very good we have a seamen's club

because if we have a problem, I know...

-We're around to help.

-Yah, you know?

Ooh. I set it up for you.

Ah, you're doing grand, man.

The centre has been entirely funded by Aberdeen's maritime industry.

'Well after ten years, five months, 18 days, here we are.'

And I'm must over the moon

that the seafarers are actually getting something that THEY want.

So my dream has not been just MY dream.

On the Highland Prince, they're just about ready to start loading.

Prince Bridge, Prince Deck on radio check, channel four.

Colin Clarkson is one of the ABs, or able seamen.

..yeah, loud and clear also.

At the moment, we're doing the blue ones here.

We're sending them up at the moment. They're all the food containers.

You have to prioritise. Hungry people on there.

3595, mate.

There we go.

That's me opposite number, Angus, from the Isle of Skye.

Right-hand man.

It's all the same principle.

There'll be an eye hanging off it, hook on, get out the way,

crane driver'll take it up.

Yeah, CM2766, bay eight. Copy that.

Whenever they're working on the deck,

someone is always on the bridge, supervising.

I'm up here, obviously, to monitor the DP equipment

to make sure we keep position, but also, most of my time I spend

making sure that what the crane is doing

and what my crew are doing is safe.

There's 55 loads here. A good, fast crane driver, which we've got here -

he's good, this fella.

You could do that in a long day, but there's the back loads as well.

The back loads slow things down a bit.

There's limited space on any rig.

There's the next back load coming now.

Back loads could be old drilling equipment, anything like that...

Refrigeration units, got to go.

Before they can take on more cargo,

the crane driver has to offload anything they no longer need.

He's trying to get a moving load on to the deck on a moving platform

from, you know, a couple of hundred feet in the air.

Good bit of driving, that, wasn't it? A lot of it's hand-eye co-ordination.

I should imagine they're good on PlayStations.

That's the baby. Come on, come on, come on.

I know it sound a bit romantic, if you like,

but I do like being at sea.

I don't think I could work in an office.

I wake up and I enjoy going to work.

That's the most important thing, I think.

I going to have to go.

'We've got a small amount of cargo.'

Eight lifts left to put aboard this particular rig

and then they're going to call it a day.

And we'll come back tomorrow morning

and, all being well, probably about an hour's work there

and we'll be heading back to the beach - to Aberdeen.

Even as they're leaving the rig,

another supply boat will be on its way out.

So it's a continual process.

They're getting supplies all the time.

The food, the water, the fuel oil,

all the paintbrushes, the rags -

literally anything you could think of that's needed

is brought out on a vessel like this.

-'Highland Prince - Britannia Deck'

-Britannia Deck - Highland Price.

'Come back in the morning.'

OK, sir, that sounds like a date.

We'll see you at 7.30 in the morning.

-'See you in the morning.'

-Sweet dreams.

On an industrial estate, just over a mile from the harbour,

is the new fish processing factory.

And Doug is keen to show it off.

You get the panoramic view from here, right.

Gives you some idea of the dimensions of the factory.

The factory was completely refurbished a year ago.

Everything up here is everything that down the road isn't.

The conditions in here are superb.

This is actually a nice place to work.

There are around 200 employees, mainly from Eastern Europe.

You see, the guys are all happy. And these girls are all happy, too.

They love working here.

The factory currently produces 50 tonnes of white fish fillets,

65 tonnes of salmon fillets, and 25 tonnes of salmon portions per week.

These numbers will increase substantially

when the refurbishment is complete.

I've been in this industry now for 40 years, right?

And, you know, from what we started with to this...

..is a million miles apart.

This will be a role model for others to follow.

We hope.

Howard's had some bad news.

Packing is never fun.

Where to start, where to finish?

Amongst his papers is his job description.

It's, "To provide in the port of Aberdeen and the surrounding area

"a Christian ministry, welfare support,

"counselling and general assistance to all seafarers,

"irrespective of race, colour or creed."

So, you know, that's what I do,

that's what I've done all my time here.

Yeah, I was asked to go down to my society's headquarters,

down in Southampton, along with all the other chaplains.

None of us expected what actually did happen the following day

when we were called into the actual meeting

and, basically, the society was losing lots of money,

and the cost of the UK chaplains - the five full-time chaplains -

was more than the cost of the 56 other chaplains worldwide.

And I was told that there was no post in Aberdeen

and they also said they wouldn't have a chaplain in a port

where there was a Seafarers' Centre, providing welfare to seafarers.

So in my success of getting a centre, I actually did myself out of a job.

The news couldn't have come at a worse time.

I've just got the centre up and running

and I almost feel as though the feet have been dragged out from underneath me.

Which obviously means I'm now going to reassess,

rethink through things, try and work out where do we go from here.

The silver lining in all of this is that it gives me a new opportunity.

As God closes one door, another opens

and a number of people have been in discussion with me

regarding the possibility of me staying here,

cos my passion is still to serve the seafarers.

So I'm hopeful that there is still a position here in Aberdeen

for a full-time Chaplain of one form or another.

Yeah, it's exciting times.

Coming up, chef Iain Scott samples his cooking...

Spot-on. Spot-on

..and the pilots practise their jumps.

It's a bit slippy.

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